


Time Cures All

by Iron_Angel



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Ghoul Sex, Pining, welcome to rare pair hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 03:29:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11455047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iron_Angel/pseuds/Iron_Angel
Summary: "It was my shame, and now it is my boast,That I have loved you rather more than most."--Hilaire Belloc,Time Cures AllHe couldn't remember his own name, but he could remember her. Impossibly, two centuries and countless dreams later, he meets her again.





	Time Cures All

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: *insert standard "don't own, no profits made" jargon here*
> 
> Unbeta'd. All mistakes/typos are mine. I'll correct them as I find them.

He couldn't remember his own name, but he could remember her.

He could remember the first time he'd seen her. The sun shining off her deep red hair and wearing a green dress while walking around the cul-de-sac of Sanctuary Hills pushing a baby carriage, oblivious to everything except her cooing infant. She never noticed him as she walked right by him on the sidewalk.

He dreamed about her that night; the first of many. Even though she wasn't on the short list of perspective candidates, the next morning he made the special trip back to Sanctuary Hills to try to sell her a space in the local Vault. It was probably the hardest sell he ever had to make, but having her look at him with those jewel-like eyes and hearing her gorgeous voice was worth every minute. It was just a shame that not only did she pay for the space for her and her child, but also her husband.

He didn't realize it at the time, but by breaking protocol and altering the paperwork to get her and her family included in the Vault program, he got himself kicked out of it due to limited space.

He was supposed to be on the list! He _was_ Vault-Tec!

He remembered her terrified eyes meeting his as security threatened to shoot him on the spot.

Everything after was a blur of heat and noise and searing pain. Days of it. Weeks. An eternity.

When he finally had strength enough to pick himself up off the ground, he tried to get into the Vault. Everyone that had been left on the surface was dead. Charred bodies were scattered everywhere; he felt a bitter sanctimoniousness that the security bastards were among them. The Vault, however, would not reopen.

He made his way back down to Sanctuary Hills. More dead bodies and most of the houses were collapsed. Hers was surprisingly still standing, though. No where else to go, he stayed there, hoping that maybe other survivors would eventually show up.

No one came.

He was so lonely. Desperate for company -- _any_ kind of company -- he reactivated her Mr. Handy. God, what a mistake that had been. The nuclear explosion had tossed it across the living room and into the kitchen, if the large dent in the refrigerator door was any clue, and it had gone into emergency shut down. Easy enough to reboot, but the damned thing could not be switched off again. Nor could it be convinced that the world had ended. Worse, it went on and on about it's masters and "Young Shaun", and complaining nonstop about the dirt and debris even as it tried to clean it. He put up with it for months before he just couldn't anymore and left.

He should have stayed.

The world outside of Sanctuary Hills was hell. So many dead, and the living would rather shoot him as look at him. What he had thought had been burns from the blast turned out to be far worse. "Ghoul," they called him, and made it clear he wasn't welcomed. The bombs annihilated old prejudices, but in turn birthed a new level of racism.

Years and years passed. He wandered and scrounged and was many times forcibly removed from any place he sought to make a home of. Through it all, though, he still remembered and dreamed of her, his fantasies his one source of comfort.

The woman with deep red hair and jewel blue eyes.

Nora.

~

He blinked up at the ceiling of his room, trying to figure out what had awoken him. A moment later he had his answer when he heard a feminine voice cry out in ecstasy from a room across the hall. Magnolia was giving a "private performance" again. Though by the sound of it, her chosen bedmate was doing the lion's share of the entertaining.

It happened often enough, he didn't care to think much about it. He rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

His eyes snapped open when he heard the second voice.

Magnolia was with a woman. Normally it wasn't a big deal; the singer was an indiscriminate lover. But that _voice_... So much like _hers_ , husky and gorgeous.

It couldn't be, he knew. Even if she had lived a full life underground in the Vault, she'd be long gone by now. That knowledge didn't stop the desire that suddenly burned through his veins, or the old fantasies springing up in his mind.

Cursing himself for a lech, he stayed awake and listened.

Whoever the woman was, she must have been something amazing. Magnolia's interludes were seldom lengthy. Not that he was deliberately keeping score, but he counted at least twice more the singer sang her song of satisfaction for the whole hotel to hear.

When all had gone quiet again, he sighed to himself and got up to prepare for his day, such as it was. If Magnolia was here, then there wouldn't be many people in the Third Rail. He could have a drink in peace, he thought.

Opening the door to his room sometime later and stepping out, he barely avoided colliding with the singer as she made her way down the hall. "Careful there, honey," she chuckled softly, side-stepping him.

He muttered an apology that she waved off and watched her head for the stairs, the faintest wobble in her step. Turning to close the door and lock it, he glanced up the hallway at the woman leaving Magnolia's usual suite.

His heart stopped.

"What? No, it can't... It... It's... It's _you_! From Sanctuary Hills!" he stammered. It couldn't be anyone but her! Thinner perhaps, but almost exactly the same as the day he'd come to her house to finalize her paperwork; the day the bombs dropped.

She looked stunned for a moment (god, her eyes were still so clear and beautiful), eyebrows rising, then knitting in confusion as if she were trying to remember something. She moved closer, looking him up and down. "Wait... Are you from Vault-Tec?"

She remembered him!

"I _am_ Vault-Tec," he growled, memories of her terrified face and a power armored goon aiming a minigun at him resurfacing after so long. Anger filled him. "Twenty years of loyal service! The best salesman in the whole goddamn Boston area, and they left me to die because I 'wasn't on the list'! Look at what they've done to me! I'm a _ghoul_!" He lunged forward -- she lifted her arms in defense -- and grabbed her by the shoulders. "But you... Look at you." He lifted a hand to her cheek. "Two hundred years and you're still perfect." He traced his thumb across her plush lips. "How is that possible? How did you get through the last two hundred years untouched?"

Her face softened and she relaxed her stance. "You don't know? Vault-Tec didn't tell you?"

"They didn't tell me anything!" he snapped.

"They froze us." She looked pained. "The Vault was some kind of... cryogenics experiment. I only thawed out recently."

"No... No, it's not right! It's not fair!" He bared his teeth, causing her to tense up again. He was too angry to care. "Do you know what I've been through these past two centuries? I had to get to the future the hard way, living through the filth and decay and bloodshed! Living through the radiation turning me into this!"

"But you lived," she whispered. "For two hundred plus years." He watched as she swallowed hard and looked away, eyes shining. "No one else survived the Vault. I'm the only one." His anger vanished and his heart sank as she wiped at her eyes. Then she sniffed and cleared her throat, looking back up at him. "Were there any others that lived through the blast?"

"There are other pre-war ghouls around, but no one from Sanctuary Hills. No one from Vault-Tec headquarters. You're the only one I've met from... before. I... I..." His own words started to sink in and it was like the he was living all those years of hell all over again. Worse than the devastation, it was the _loneliness_ that hurt the most. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Oh god, I've been so alone here! So, so alone..."

His heart nearly stopped for a second time as all of a sudden he felt her hands on his face. Stunned, he jerked and blinked up at her. He wanted to resent her look of pity, but it had been so long since anyone had looked at him with something other than disgust. He knew he should let her go, to pull away, but it had been even longer still since anyone had touched him with such gentleness.

Deep in the core of his being, he knew he was a greedy and ambitious man. It made him the best Vault-Tec salesman in the region before the bombs. It kept him alive after. With her so close, that old greed overtook his heartache, and he wanted more of her touch, of her closeness. Just as he had that first autumn day in Sanctuary Hills, he wanted _her_.

The hand on her cheek slid around to cup the back of her neck, pulling her closer. She didn't resist when he tilted his head and pressed a kiss to her lips.

Just like in an old movie, when he pulled back again, her eyes reopened slowly and she smiled at him. "Normally I'd at least ask to be taken out to dinner first," she said, brushing her thumbs against his ruined cheeks.

The absolute absurdity of her words, so "old world" and out of place, startled a bark of laughter out of him. "Do you know how surreal this is for me right now? Two hundred and some odd years after watching the world end, I find you again, as beautiful as the day I first saw you." And having just banged the local celebrity, he thought to himself. "Not only that, you just let me, a ghoul, kiss you."

She shrugged, letting her hands rest on his chest, eyes going distant. "As you said, the world ended. It's all just about survival for everyone now, and so little feels real to me anymore." She ran her fingers along his lapels. "I don't like what I have to do nowadays. I don't like having to take blood money to be able to eat real food or sleep in a real bed. So when I can share one without having to kill someone to earn it, I don't care if it's human or ghoul."

His old-fashioned sensibilities told him that that should bother him, but it didn't. He had lived through so much, he could understand what she meant. So it was with only a little burn from his long-held desires he said, "I have a bed you can share."

She looked up into his eyes, searching. Then, "Okay."

He took one of her hands in his and turned back to open the door of his room, leading her inside. Closing it behind them, he turned to look at her. Different from his dreams and fantasies, but so much better, he decided as he watched her bend and twist to remove her armor and gun belt. His breath caught in his throat as she removed her helmet, shaking her hair free, and added it to the pile of her gear on the desk. It wasn't quite as dark a red as he remembered, but it was still just as luxurious and vibrant even in the dim light. His fingers ached to finally touch it.

When her fingers went to the zip of her vault suit at her throat, he stepped forward and put his hand over hers. "Please, may I...?"

She didn't hesitate, dropping her hand to her side with a nod. He licked his lips, gripped the pull tab, and slowly began lowering it. Past the swell of her breasts, however, it took a mind of its own, all but bursting apart. Her clothing pre-war did not do her justice.

"Sorry, I should have warned you," she said, blushing.

"Nothing to apologize for." The zip as low as it would go, he slid his hands up under the material and pushed it off her shoulders. Caught at her elbows and arms pinned to her sides, he looped an arm around her waist and finally, _finally_ thread the fingers of his free hand into her hair.

Nothing that his mind had ever come up with could compare to the sound of her moan as he kissed her. No doubt it was just him over-romanticizing it, but the feel of her skin, so soft and smooth, he couldn't remember having felt something so wonderful. He left her mouth to kiss along her jaw and down the side of her neck, wanting to sink his teeth into the muscle that joined it to her shoulder, but stopping himself. It would be too much, too soon.

She suddenly did something he would have never expected. Content to keep her "trapped" for a little longer, he had made no move to help her any further out of her vault suit. She, however, was ready to be out of it. Keeping her lower half in place, she bent her shoulders and arms back in an complicated angle that made the material of the suit's top go slack and slide completely off.

He'd not seen anything like that since the last time he'd visited a circus forever ago.

Righting herself, she smiled when she caught sight of his widened eyes. "Not the only parlor trick I know," she said with a wink. "Take me to bed and I might show you a few more."

He had a trick of his own. Not only longevity and immunity to acute radiation poisoning, ghoulification made one physically stronger. It was way ferals hit so damned hard.

Without warning, he shifted and scooped her up into his arms bridal style, carrying her over to his bed. She honest-to-god _giggled_ as he laid her across it, then set to work undressing her completely. Pulling back to remove his own clothes, he stared at her spread out on the mattress like some sort of goddess in a renaissance painting, gazing back at him with a heated look.

Crawling back into bed, he bent to place a kiss between her breasts, then another and another as he moved up, finally capturing her lips again. One hand slid up the back of his head and into his hair, lightly scratching her fingernails along his scalp, as the other skimmed along his side to his obliques. Running a thumb along the vee of his pelvis, she slowly pressed it in just shy of the bone and gave a firm, circular rub.

Breaking the kiss and jerking his head back, he hissed an, "Oh god!", and dropped his head to her shoulder, panting. Pulling away slightly, he found that whatever she had just done to him, his previously half-hard cock was very much at attention and ready to go. He didn't have much time to even think to puzzle over it as she reached between them to stroke his length from root to tip, rubbing the head against her clit as she shifted her hips restlessly.

Not wanting to be a passive participant, he sat back on his knees, hooking hers over his arms, and pulling her lower half onto his lap. He took over stroking himself as she moved her hand to her own sex, parting her folds to reveal her glistening entrance. Any thoughts of her maybe wanting to back out left his mind then, and he guided himself in, lifting her hips again to pull her flush against him.

She felt so good! Each slide and pull, the sweetest sighs and moans escaped her lips, rising in pitch and urging him closer to his own end. It had been so very long since he'd had such ecstasy -- before the bombs -- that he fought against his release just as hard as he worked to bring hers. By chance circumstance, he had her now. He would be damned if he didn't hold out long enough for her.

"So close!" she gasped. "Harder, please, _harder_!"

Releasing her hips to brace his hands against the bed, he obeyed. She planted her feet, lifting her hips to meet his on the downstroke, her entire body save her head and shoulders leaving the mattress. Just as her inner walls began to flutter around him, she slid both hands between them, framing her fingers in an inverted triangle against her mons, and pressing hard. She came with a shout, her muscles clenching down on him so hard, he followed right behind her.

~

Left laces tied, she put her foot back down, grabbed her other boot and lifted her right foot up. "You know, I just realized I don't know your name," she said. "You never told me when you talking me up with your sales pitch."

No, he never actually did, did he, he realized as he buttoned his shirt. "Been so long now, I... I don't remember it," he admitted. "Always the same introduction, 'Good morning! Vault-Tec calling!' People who didn't just slam the door in my face didn't bother to ask back then."

She stood and went to her gear, pulling on her chest piece. "Do you have a name you would like me to call you?"

"I don't have one I'm especially fond of, no. Vault-Tec was always better than 'filthy ghoul'." He reached for his tie, looping it around his neck.

He didn't want to think about any of this. It sounded too much like she was leading up to a good-bye. The state of her armor and the way she competently checked her gun before shoving it into it's holster pointed to a woman on a mission, not just some wandering drifter. He knew she had to leave, and there wasn't anything he could say or do to keep her with him any longer.

"May I call you Charlie then?"

He blinked up at her. "Why that one?"

She shrugged, not looking up from strapping on her leg armor. "Charles is a good, strong name, but it sounds so formal. I like Charlie better. Unless you'd prefer Chuck?" She moved up to her arm guards.

"I like Charlie." He did. It sounded appropriate. He frowned. "But it doesn't matter," he sighed bitterly, and he felt an odd burning in his chest. "No one else will care to know it, and I don't expect I'll get to see you again after this. No one with a place to go stays in Goodneighbor. They all just pass through."

"About that..." She turned to face him, looking suddenly unsure. Why on Earth would she be unsure? "You could come back to Sanctuary. Some friends of mine and I have rebuilt it and made it into a decent settlement. There's plenty of room, and we don't mind ghouls. Several of them are, in fact. I'm on the road a lot, but I would come visit as often as I can. I promise."

He was gobsmacked. She was offering him a home! More importantly, she was promising to see him again! He didn't dare hope... "Really? You... you will?" He groaned inwardly at how eager and desperate he sounded, but he couldn't stop himself. "I could... I could leave today... Head over there right now..." He felt stupidly giddy. "You really promise to visit?"

She smiled, seeming to relax. "Yeah, I really do." She moved up to him, taking his hands in hers as she leaned forward to kiss his cheek. "It'll save me from having to detour to Goodneighbor to come see you more often."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Kudos and comments are always appreciated.


End file.
